Claims

Relearning an old response pattern generally beats learning a new one in the Post phase, except under severe 25% punishment

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q3 i? In Experiment 1 (50% fixed win rate), Post phase win rates were significantly higher for relearning old than learning new. → Zhang 2026 q3 i? In Experiment 2 (25% fixed win rate), Post phase win rates did not differ between relearning-old and learning-new conditions, eliminating the relearning-old advantage. → Zhang 2026 (2)

Evidence

Zhang 2026

Zhang, Y., & Dyson, B. J. (2026). Recover or discover: How outcome feedback shapes response patterns within game spaces. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-026-00414-w

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Within-participants t-test in Experiment 1 (n = 76 analysed) comparing Post phase win rates after a 50% fixed-win-rate During phase. Relearning old (66.16%) exceeded learning new (61.39%), "t(75) = 3.25, p = .002"; no effect size printed.

"However, in the Post phase, relearning old win rates (66.16%) were significantly higher than learning new win rates (61.39%) as assessed via a within-participants t-test (t(75) = 3.25, p = .002)."

Zhang 2026 (2)

Zhang, Y., & Dyson, B. J. (2026). Recover or discover: How outcome feedback shapes response patterns within game spaces. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-026-00414-w

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Experiment 2 (n = 72 analysed) with the During win rate fixed at 25%: the Post phase relearning-old advantage was "eliminated in Experiment 2 as a result of increasing the punishment rate to 25%"; equivalence was not tested.

"Post phase win rates did not differ between relearning-old and learning-new conditions (66.05% vs. 68.25%, respectively: t[71] = -1.032, p = .306)."

Discussion

Page metadata
Field Value
type claim
id relearning-old-beats-learning-new-except-severe-punishment
title Relearning an old response pattern generally beats learning a new one in the Post phase, except under severe 25% punishment
description Relearning an old response pattern generally beats learning a new one in the Post phase, except under severe 25% punishment
status review
evidence_strength mixed
newest_evidence 2026
generated by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-26
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 2 — zhang-2026, zhang-2026-2

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